an opposition activist from belarus says she was driven to the polish border by the security services and forced to leave the country. olga kovalkova said if she had not agreed to leave the country, she would have faced a long spell in jail. india announced on saturday that it had 90,000 new coronavirus cases — that is a new global daily record. the country is struggling to contain the virus as it is moving quickly into smaller towns and rural areas from the major cities. forecasters warn californians will have to endure a rare and dangerous heat wave with temperatures that could hit 49 degrees celcius in some areas. the authorities warn the extreme weather could raise risk of forest fires and cause rolling electrical black this is bbc news. outs. welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. i'm james reynolds. california is already our top stories: a senior belarusian opposition activist takes recovering from a heatwave in refuge in poland, saying she's been forced to choose between august and wildfires. arizona jail and exile. and are also experiencing the india records 90,000 heat wave.

new coronavirus cases on sunday, a new civil servants in global daily record. england are being urged by the government to return a rare and dangerous heat wave to work in their offices. is hitting california. in a letter seen by the bbc, temperatures could hit 49 the government wants 80% degrees celcius in some areas. of civil servants to be and, the bolshoi ballet at their workplace at least is back treading the boards once a week by the end of the month. after shutting down unions have described the government's attitude during the pandemic. as outdated. our political correspondent, chris mason, has more. usually vibrant, bustling, dynamic, and yet for much of the last six months many of our city centres have looked like this. it's time for that to change, says the government. the head of the civil service, sir mark sedwill, says the prime minister believes... this is whitehall, home to loads of government departments. it's actually relatively busy here today but still pretty quiet on weekdays. the government wants four in five civil servants in england to be back at their desks for at least

some of the week by the end of this month with more and more people worrying that unless public and private sector workers return to the office there could be huge economic consequences. if we don't see workers coming back until the new year, and workers are a big driver of footfall in city centres, particularly on a monday to friday, then we might see a huge wave of closures and a huge wave of redundancies as a result. but some believe changes in where many people have worked in recent months will be permanent. what the government are doing are virtue signalling, using the civil service, not because it's a more efficient way of operating, but because they want to send a signal to the private sector. they are dreaming about a world of work which has, quite frankly, gone. in scotland, wales and northern ireland, the message is still to work from home if you can. but in england, the government is hoping that more people can be persuaded back to their workplace. now on bbc news, our world.

in december last year, locusts started swarming across east africa. now, hundreds of billions of these tiny creatures have invaded the region from somalia to uganda. it's the worst locust outbreak that kenya has seen in 70 years... ..threatening to destroy the livelihoods of millions. if nothing is done, each generation of locusts multiplies by 20, so the race is on to stop them breeding again.

i'm anne soy, the bbc‘s senior africa correspondent, and i've spent the past few months stuck in nairobi, covering the impact of the covid—i9 pandemic. today, i'm leaving the city to find out about another crisis which has the potential to be even more destructive than covid—i9 for some areas of my country. nairobi is one of the hotspot areas for covid—i9, and so movement in and out of the metropolitan area is forbidden, except for essential services — that includes journalists like us — but we still had to get this letter from the media council of kenya,

just to certify that we are allowed to travel outside the metropolitan area. and we also have our press cards, to show the security officers who are making sure that there's no movement in and out of that area. we are travelling to northern kenya, where they reported a swarm of locusts almost the size of moscow at the beginning of the year. albert lemasulani's family have lived on this land for generations. they are samburu nomadic herders, who rely almost entirely on their animals. taking care of their livestock is not only their way of life, but crucial for their survival.

but these vast swarms of desert locusts threaten the vegetation they rely on to feed their animals. albert took an extraordinary decision.

he has spent the last five months and much of his personal savings tracking the locust swarms and sending coordinates to the teams working to prevent a plague. now they call him ‘the locust man'. the original migrant locust swarms came to kenya from the southern arabian peninsula. extreme weather conditions there allowed at least three generations of locusts to breed undetected. despite international efforts, months later, a new generation of kenyan—born locusts hatched. now it's a race against time to stop them breeding another larger and more

destructive generation. it's early morning and albert is with a government surveillance team tracking the latest swarm. swarms of desert locusts can contain tens of billions of individuals and travel up to 150 kilometres a day. they need to pinpoint the current swarms so the spray planes can cover the area with pesticides. they've found the swarm.

albert's firstjob is to enter all the information in an app designed specifically for people to input data and track the swarms. a member of the grasshopper family, these normally shy, solitary insects become gregarious mini—beasts when vegetation starts to dry up and they are crowded together. each locust can eat its

own body weight daily. even just an average swarm can destroy crops sufficient to feed 2,500 people for a year injust a day. hello! the team has called in their location to the spray planes. but if it doesn't get here soon, the locusts will start moving again. it looks like time is running out to tackle this swarm. ..trying to spot where they can be able to...

they didn't manage to spray the swarm in time. albert now relies on motorbike scouts to do much of the ground tracking. it's all rough roads here, and hard to access. when he started out, albert was doing this work alone. but with the support of an international ngo, he's trained a group of young men who shared the geo coordinates and information on the swarms on the app tracking desert locusts, so now, they know where to spray.

albert has asked one of his spotters to go and check a site that was sprayed last month. luckily, it appears to have been a success. that swarm was destroyed. it's a new day and albert has found the biggest swarm he's ever come across. all across north of kenya, trees that look burnt

but when you get closer, you realise they're just full of locusts. when locusts hatch, they first form hopper bands, a stage where they are unable to fly, that lasts about six weeks. then, they turn pink in colour, start flying and form swarms. when they mature, they turn yellow and they are ready to lay eggs. the whole process takes about three months.

ready to breed. an average female lays 150 eggs in her lifetime. if a second kenyan generation hatches, it could be devastating. so, captain... yes. this is captain neepe. he flies one of the surveillance helicopters

for the un food and agriculture organization. as we are filming, they get more bad news. heavy rain means the spray planes further south cannot take off. this enormous swarm of mature locusts is able to fly again and they are one day closer to breeding the next generation. albert is going home to see his family for the first time in two weeks. but the threat of covid—i9 means family reunions are difficult.

albert has not spent more than one week at home since his youngest son was born. albert's wife angeline is looking after their four children and albert's ioi—year—old grandmother.

despite the sacrifice, albert is determined to help his people.

it is dawn in lewa conservancy, in laikipia, northern kenya. this is one of the operation‘s bases for tackling the locusts. the un food and agriculture organization works with the kenyan government to manage aerial and ground spraying. but kenya only has five spray planes, and it's one of the most equipped countries in the region battling locusts. this is the only way the locust swarms can be controlled, using these pesticides. kenya has stockpiled them but because of the covid—i9 pandemic, the global supply chains have been disrupted

and that means it's becoming increasingly difficult to import more chemicals, and that's the big fear now. with chemicals scarce, it's crucial that they are accurate where they spray. and it's albert and the surveillance team's job to get the information to the pilots.

today, spraying has been a success. but to stop the devastation, they need to destroy the majority of the swarms before they breed a new generation. over the next two weeks, albert keeps tracking the swarms as they travel north. he sent us his reports. when they are mature, the locusts dig holes to lay eggs in the earth. they are hard to spot and even harder to destroy. then, the moment they had all been dreading —

the next generation hatching. enormous hopper bands are discovered all across the desert areas of marsabit, northern samburu and into turkana. we join albert again and travel

north to the county of turkana. it's the end of the rainy season here and the crops are almost ready to harvest. it doesn't take long. our drive up to turkana is interrupted by a massive band of hoppers crossing the road, taking over everything they can. rebecca and her eight children grow maize and beans on their farm, just a few

kilometres from the border with uganda. heavy rains meant they were expecting a good crop. they are trying everything to defend theirfarm from invading hopper bands. the only hope now for rebecca

is that pesticides will work, if they get here in time. while we were with rebecca, we heard of another farm in turkana that had already been taken over by hopper bands.

albert and the teams are fighting as hard as they can to prevent a plague of locusts through the region. but with this generation likely to be the biggest of all, the future looks very uncertain for millions.

hello, there. we can sum the weather up this weekend as sunshine and showers and the showers through saturday were most frequent across scotland, northern ireland and northern england. that focus shifts slightly as we head through sunday, still some showers around, courtesy of this feature but this time the focus is across england and wales, so a drier day for scotland and northern ireland with some spells of sunshine. in fact, most of us will see some spells of sunshine through sunday but we do need to watch out for those showers. most frequent through the morning, across northern england into wales and the midlands. it could be heavy, maybe even thundery, sliding their way south and eastwards, if you shut up and down into lincolnshire and east anglia, as i said, many will be dry with some spells of sunshine and lighter

winds as well compared to saturday so it should feel a bit warmer, 16—20 celsius for many, little bit cooler further north across scotland. then we see rain and cloud arriving into western scotland and northern ireland through the evening and overnight. slowly pushing its way eastwards. ahead of that a lot of cloud spilling into southern scotland, northern england and north wales. while we have the cloud in the rain temperatures will easily stay in double figures but while we have clear skies, particularly further south, still in single figures and we start the new week with a north—south split. so wetter and windy to the north the uk, drier and increasingly warm and humid for the south. on monday, rain already across northern ireland and scotland will sink its way slowly south eastwards, tending to fizzle out as it does so but likely some rain into northern england, parts of wales, south—west england, drier further south and east you are but with increasing cloud and perhaps some gusty winds for a time across the north of england, into scotland and northern ireland but despite the breeze, the cloud and the rain, temperatures will still be in the high teens across the north of the uk and perhaps up to 20 or 21 celsius further south and east, and we hold onto that plume of warmth as we head through tuesday and for some, on wednesday although the temperatures start to come down across the north

of the uk. tuesday is a mostly cloudy day, the best of the brightness will be the further east you are, likely see some rain into western scotland, maybe northern ireland, some patchy drizzle across the west of wales and south—west england but look at those temperatures quite widely in the high teens to low 20s celsius. as we head through the middle part of the week, we hold onto that warmth and humidity for the south and then turning 00:28:19,716 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 cooler elsewhere by thursday.